By now, anyone who knows anything about Baldur’s Gate 3 knows that it’s structured around and set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons, allowing for fans of the tabletop to scratch that itch when their table can’t get their schedules to align. Yet, for people who have no experience with D&D, they can still dive right in and enjoy everything Baldur’s Gate 3 has to offer.
Even better, it works as the perfect starting point for players who want to try their hand at the tabletop itself.
Baldur’s Gate 3: 9 Hardest Dice Checks To Roll
Just save before these rolls, you will be save-scumming for success.
I’m a Dungeon Master for a homebrew horror campaign set in Feudal Japan (samurai, yokai, the works — it’s basically a cross between Inuyasha and Silent Hill f), and I’ve been at this for about seven years now. Like many other DMs (and players), I had to learn the tabletop through trial by fire, and there really is no better way to figure it out.
Yet, if you had placed Baldur’s Gate 3 in front of me first to learn the ropes, I would have dove into the tabletop not only a lot more confident, but simply better overall. While I can’t go back in time to give myself this game to see what Critical Role Butterfly Effect would have happened, I can say with confidence that if anyone wants to learn how to play D&D, Baldur’s Gate 3 is the perfect starting point.
Dungeons & Dragons is Tough to Learn
Baldur’s Gate 3 Makes it Easy
There is no slow, easy way to learn Dungeons & Dragons — it’s truly dependent on the kind of DM you have and what campaign you’re playing — there is no other way to learn other than diving blindly into water. Ripping the band-aid off and learning how to play is without a doubt the hardest part of Dungeons & Dragons. Of course, playing and DMing is a breeze to me now that I’ve been playing for about seven years, but starting off was unbelievably difficult, and others will say the same thing.
Baldur’s Gate 3 simplifies this learning curve, introducing things in increments and more or less holding your hand to guide you through your first time around; which is simply the perfect way to learn D&D.
It’s important to note that Baldur’s Gate 3 does change a few things in order to work better for a coded video game rather than a more fluid tabletop — some race perks, class features, subclass mechanics, spells, and other little rules have been tweaked to better fit a gameplay experience rather than a roleplaying one. Even then, the roleplay is still killer.
These changes, while not always better than the tabletop counterpart, definitely make things easier for newcomers; I should also preface that there aren’t many changes at all, just subtle shifts for things that would be harder to adapt. Just saying, if I had a new player at my table who has Baldur’s Gate 3 rules as the foundation, it’ll be no problem — after all, if the only thing new players would have to learn is the proper tabletop mechanics instead of everything from scratch, that’s a win in my book.
Baldur’s Gate 3: 10 Ways to Make Your Next Playthrough Different
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a massive game with endless replayability. But how can you make each playthrough feel unique?
The hardest thing to learn with D&D is the vast number of rules that are in place, both in and outside of combat, but these minor shifts in some of the mechanics will demonstrate first-hand why it works better for a video game. Not to mention, there are a good number of House Rules (table/DM-specific changes from the core rules) implemented into the game to make things even easier.
Drinking a Potion of Healing during a Bonus Action is one example — the core rules have it to where drinking a potion actually takes a full action, but every DM (including Matt Mercer himself) unanimously agreed that that’s dumb and decided that it’s better to be done during a Bonus Action. The folks over at Larian Studios must also have thought the same thing for them to incorporate it into their final game, and now newcomers are familiar with the basics and popular changes to those basics.
Another example is the inclusion of Dual Spellcasting: in the tabletop, players can only cast one spell per turn (unless they’re a Sorcerer with Quickened Spell). Meaning if they have already cast Fireball, but they want to cast Misty Step to go somewhere else, they can’t. Baldur’s Gate 3, however, removes this restriction to allow more fluidity and freedom in combat (especially since other aspects were tweaked to be more restricted, like some spells themselves).
Of course, players would have to learn otherwise when they play on the actual tabletop, but by this point, they’re familiar with spells, spell slots, and how it all works, so it’s a minor adjustment that shouldn’t cause issue. Then again, if your DM allows Dual Spellcasting, players won’t even have to learn anything new at all.
Obviously, there are more examples, but the point stands: if anyone genuinely wants to learn D&D (and see if they would even have fun with it), Baldur’s Gate 3 is where to start. But new and upcoming players aren’t going to just learn all the how-tos and mechanics, they learn the world as a whole.
The World is Detailed and Pulls From Many Books
You’ll Learn Lore Better Through BG3
Not only is Baldur’s Gate 3 great to learn the motions of playing D&D, but it’s great at helping you learn the world and its lore, too. Every DM tackles their world differently, of course, but the Faerûn that’s depicted in this game is a perfect one-size-fits-all for understanding a typical D&D world — and even veteran players can learn a lot from being in this particular map.
As I’ve stated before, my campaign is homebrew, set in Feudal Japan rather than anywhere along the Sword Coast (meaning I didn’t bother to learn any of the lore as it didn’t pertain to my campaign’s world and its Shinto roots), and as I’ve played Baldur’s Gate 3, I actually learned far more than any lore the guidebooks could teach me. After years in a world of my own making, I could now, very easily, run a campaign set in Faerûn without any issue.
I have a small bookshelf that’s packed with various D&D guidebooks (all from 5th Edition), and it still isn’t the entire collection. Considering how each book is, on average, anywhere between $30-60, that’s a ton of money for what’s essentially a few extra subclasses and module ideas. Obviously, there’s more to the books than that, but that’s about the only reason people pre-order them.
Meanwhile, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a one-time purchase of $60 — $80 if you want to go all out with the Deluxe Edition — and considering just how much mileage you can get out of it, it’s well worth the gold.
Baldur’s Gate 3: 10 Most Useless Subclasses, Ranked
Not all subclasses were created equal for Baldur’s Gate 3, and unfortunately, some are pretty useless when compared to the rest.
The world of Baldur’s Gate 3 (and by extension, D&D as a whole) is incredibly vast and rich, full of all kinds of lives and how they’re lived. You don’t even get to see the entirety of the world, but what you’re exposed to is already massive and full of so much content, you can fill in the gaps on your own. For example, while we may never actually visit Waterdeep in the game, we learn enough about it from Gale and other players that we can paint our own picture — and if someone plays a campaign set in Waterdeep, they already have a strong idea.
The same applies even to areas we’ve already visited within Faerûn, such as patches of the Underdark. While we’re exposed to the more mushroom and wilderness aesthetic of the Underdark rather than the Crystaline Drow Societies, we learn enough while we’re there (and from other drow characters) to know what to expect when you go underground in the tabletop.
The bread and butter of the Faerûn we see is through the city of Baldur’s Gate itself, as well as some independent towns and forestry on the way there. Of course, the game follows its own lore and stories (such as the events of the first Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate 2), but they still pulled from canon.
If the only thing new players would have to learn is the proper tabletop mechanics instead of everything from scratch, that’s a win in my book.
Not only this, but developers also dove through the Forgotten Realms, which were races, classes, and other lore bits from previous editions of D&D that are teetering on being canon now. Baldur’s Gate 3, however, pushed its representation to canon, with no better example being the githyanki.
Originally, anyone who knew what a githyanki even was, was typically a hardcore veteran D&D nerd — now, thanks to Lae’zel, there isn’t a D&D player in the world anymore who doesn’t know about the Mind Flayer Slayers. Now, there have been new players coming into the tabletop leading with a githyanki character, and that wouldn’t have been as known of an option if it weren’t for Baldur’s Gate 3 bringing everything it can into the spotlight.
The sheer amount of things to learn and take in is dizzying, mind-boggling even (which makes sense for a tabletop that’s been around since the late 70s), but it’s consolidated and condensed in a way that’s easy to swallow. And, of course, it’s just plain fun, and that’s what D&D has always been about.
Dive In and Enjoy Rolling Dice
Baldur’s Gate 3 Will Get You Hooked
10 Baldur’s Gate 3 Moments that Feel Completely Different on a Second Playthrough
Even if you make every single choice the same in your next Baldur’s Gate 3 playthrough, it won’t feel the same now that you have context.
If anyone wants to get started with Dungeons & Dragons and they don’t know where to start, I will always recommend Baldur’s Gate 3 as the perfect launchpad. While it’s a great starting point for new D&D players, above all else, it’s just a great time for nerds all around. It didn’t win Game of the Year in 2023 for no reason, after all.
There is something new to be discovered (and learned) even on your hundredth playthrough, just as you’d continue to learn new tactics while playing your hundredth session on the tabletop. Whether it’s rules, lore, or something else entirely pertaining to D&D, it’s the strongest foundation (and introduction) to the wonders of TTRPGS.
Even better, if you already played through Baldur’s Gate 3, loved it, and you’re wondering if D&D is still a good fit: it absolutely is, and that’s thanks to everything the game teaches you about the tabletop and all it can offer. Not even other games set in the world of D&D can come close in how well it prepares you.
Just be warned: we can’t prevent anyone from becoming an absolute Dice Goblin once they get started; that’s just par for the course for D&D newcomers, so embrace it to the fullest.
And as a DM, I can’t emphasize enough how much fun everything is going to be once you get started, so just dive in and go wild.
Baldur’s Gate 3: 10 Popular D&D Classes & Subclasses Still Missing From The Game
Unfortunately, not everything from D&D has been adapted into Baldur’s Gate 3 — but that doesn’t mean we can’t wish for it.
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- Released
- August 3, 2023
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence
- Engine
- Divinity 4.0
- Multiplayer
- Online Co-Op, Local Co-Op
- Cross-Platform Play
- Full
23 years on from the release of the seminal RPG, Baldur’s Gate 2, the third game in the series has been developed by Larian Studios (of Divinity: Original Sin fame). Set over 120 years after the events of the last game, Baldur’s Gate 3 tasks you and your party of heroes to fight off a mind flayer invasion of Faerun, while seeking a way to remove the tadpole in your brain that’s slowly turning you into the enemy…
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- Cross Save
- Full cross-platform progression.
- Number of Players
- 1-4 players
- Split Screen Orientation
- Vertical Only
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Verified
- PC Release Date
- August 3, 2023
- Xbox Series X|S Release Date
- December 7, 2023
- PS5 Release Date
- September 6, 2023
- How Long To Beat
- 73 hours
- X|S Optimized
- yes
- File Size Xbox Series
- 140.38 GB
- Metascore
- 96
- PS Plus Availability
- N/A
- Local Co-Op Support
- 1-2 Players
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
- Security Camera Installation – indoor/outdoor IP CCTV systems & video analytics
- Access Control Installation – key card, fob, biometric & cloud‑based door entry
- Business Security Systems – integrated alarms, surveillance & access control
- Structured Cabling Services – voice, data & fiber infrastructure for new or existing builds
- Video Monitoring Services – 24/7 remote surveillance and analytics monitoring
Author: 360 Technology Group
